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Rules & Guidelines

The underlying purpose of Trailpost since its founding is to be the world’s largest community of people, organizations, and businesses that live, breathe, and love the outdoors. We want everyone to be able to share their unique and individual experiences openly and safely. In order to maintain the spirit of such a community, we have a few ground rules that will be enforced. Failing to follow these rules may result in your account being temporarily locked or permanently suspended.

It is important to note that we reserve the right to update these rules from time to time as our understanding of how people interact on our services grows.

Prohibited content

Trailpost has a very expansive definition of what we consider acceptable discourse and on balance will always lean towards protecting the right of individuals and organizations to express their views openly and and respectfully regardless of viewpoint. With that said, there are things that we do not allow to be done on our services.

Trademark violations

We reserve the right to reclaim digital “property” such as account usernames, organization usernames, and similar items on behalf of organizations or individuals that hold legal claim or trademark on those names or marks. Additionally, accounts using names or logos to mislead others may be permanently suspended.

Copyright violations

We will respond to clear and complete, legally compliant notices of copyright infringement in accordance with our Copyright Policy.

Graphic content

You may not post pornographic or violent media anywhere on our services. While we encourage users to be mindful of others, this prohibition does not include media related to outdoor activities such as hunting photos, videos about how to clean fish, or information about handling injuries.

Unlawful content

You may not post content that is illegal in the United States of America regardless of your country of residence. Additionally, we encourage international users to comply with the laws of their own countries even if Trailpost does not have a legal presence there.

Abusive behavior

Trailpost is first and foremost a community of outdoor enthusiasts from all walks of life. We expect each and every person who uses Trailpost to treat each other with respect. We do stress however that disagreement, even vigorous agreement, rarely rises to the level of abuse.

Threats of violence

You may not use our services to make direct or indirect violent threats against others.

Abusive harassment

You may not incite or engage in targeted abuse or harassment of others. Factors we may take into account when determining whether behavior rises to the level of abusive harassment are:

The proportion of postings by an account that are harassing or abusive in relation to other posting history

Whether the harassing or abusive behavior is one-sided

If there is encouragement of other users to engage in abuse or harassment

Multiple account abuse

While Trailpost does not have any explicit policy prohibiting users from having multiple accounts, using such accounts to evade suspensions or to engage in harassment is strictly prohibited.

Publishing private personal information

You may not publish or post other people’s private or confidential information without their express permission. This includes but is not limited to:

Phone numbers

Email addresses

Physical addresses

Full names

Social security or national identification numbers

Private photographs, video or audio clips

Please remember that some people have legitimate safety concerns about their privacy beyond just preference, for some people it could be a matter of life and death.

Impersonation

You may not impersonate people or organizations through Trailpost’s services that intends to, or does, mislead, confuse, or deceive others.

Abuse of resources

Username squatting

You may not engage in the practice of registering accounts to hold potential usernames. While this is not an exact science, the factors we take into account when determining whether an account is squatting a username are:

The number of accounts created by the owner

The activity of the account holding the username

Whether the activity of the account seems automated rather than a real person

Whether the username is trademarked

Spreading malware and phishing

You may not use Trailpost’s services to publish or link to malicious content intended to disrupt or damage another person’s browser or computer, or to compromise a person’s privacy. Spam

You may not use Trailpost’s services to spam. Not all spam is commercial in nature. What constitutes spam is an ever changing definition as technology and tactics change over time. Some factors we take into account when determining whether someone is engaged in spamming are:

What proportion of activity appears to be automated

What proportion of content published to the services is promotional in nature

What proportion of content is related to Trailpost’s general topic of outdoor activity

How many users are may have blocked your communications

How many times your content has been reported as violating our Terms of Use

Whether you send a disproportionately large number of unsolicited messages publicly or privately